DURHAM — In this new digital era, ever wonder what it’s like to surf the web or navigate an i-Phone like someone who has low or no vision?

Well, here’s your chance.

To celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Durham’s LCI Tech is challenging people to learn about tech access and inclusion by trying a series of activities — like going mouseless for an hour or surfing the web using a screen reader — that give a little glimpse of some of the obstacles faced by those who are blind or low vision.

“Unlike some physical accessibility aspects, much of digital accessibility is invisible to the naked eye, so the broader population doesn’t see the issues that people like myself face on a daily basis,” says John Samuel, Chief Innovation Architect at LCI Tech, which offers usability testing, training and monitoring to bring firms up to speed.

“That’s why Global Accessibility Awareness Day is so important because it brings these challenges to the forefront and highlights the importance of inclusive design in a digital era.”

Up for the challenge? Take a stab and share your feedback on LCI Tech’s social media:

Challenge # 1 – Go mouseless for an hour

Go ahead and unplug your mouse and only use your keyboard alone (tab/shift tab, arrow keys, enter and spacebar) to navigate and interact with your favorite websites and applications. If you use a touchpad, trackpad or similar input method, disable it, and use the keyboard instead.

Challenge #2 – Surf the web using a screen reader

There are a number of free/open source screen readers available for Windows users. One of the more popular ones is NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA). Take a bit of time beforehand to download the software and learn some of NVDA’s documented basic keystrokes.

Mac users, you have a built-in screen reader called VoiceOver on your systems. Take some time to visit the site referenced to familiarize yourself with how to turn on VoiceOver and some of the basic keystrokes.

Challenge #3 – Add Alt Text to all your images on websites and social media

You can create alternative text (Alt Text) for shapes, pictures, charts, SmartArt graphics, or other objects in your documents. Alt Text helps people with visual impairments understand pictures and other graphical content. When someone uses a screen reader to view documents, they will hear Alt Text; without Alt Text, they will only know they’ve reached a picture without knowing what the picture shows.

Challenge #4 – Enlarge your fonts and check for sufficient color contrast

Use your browser and resize the text to 200 percent. Now look at the screen, and make sure there is no loss of content or functionality.  An often forgotten but important accessibility item is making sure that a page has sufficient color contrast.  Here’s a free color analyzer from NC State University to find out how your website stacks up

Challenge #5 – Caption or add subtitles to your videos, visual presentations, webinars & meetings

Video – If you don’t have a script, you will want to transcribe audio and narration. There are a few ways to accomplish this by checking out the steps listed in this post.

Virtual Presentations, Webinars, Meetings

●      When using Zoom, you can select closed captions in the settings area to create captions and/or subtitles.

●      In Google Meet, you can make it easier to follow what’s being said in meetings by turning on captions, which show text of the conversation.

●      You also can enable closed captioning in Cisco’s WebEx platform by following the instructions within the settings.

New interview series

Also, on Thursday, May 21, LCI Tech is launching a new interview series, All Access with John Samuel, a video and audio collection of conversations with thought leaders in digital accessibility and beyond. The first episode features Jennison Asuncion, Head of Accessibility at LinkedIn.

Based in Durham, NC, LCI Tech began offering technology consulting services in 2018 for organizations in the public and private sectors, higher education, nonprofit and government entities.

Some of its clients include the Raleigh Little Theatre, Downtown Raleigh Alliance, PineCone and more. LCI Tech is part of LCI, a manufacturing, distribution, wholesale, and retail provider that’s one of the largest employers of Americans who are blind or visually impaired.

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